Recently, Beyond Burger, Inc. became a publicly traded company and made headlines with a record-setting first day on the market. It’s the company behind Burger King’s new “Beyond Burger,” a plant-based alternative to its original Whopper. The plant-based movement is gathering steam nationwide, but here in Central Texas it’s been chugging along for more than a decade thanks to San Antonio Chef Mike Behrend.
Behrend has become known as “The Veg King." This converted carnivore has been pioneering the plant-based restaurant movement in San Antonio since 2007 when he founded the first Green Vegetarian Cuisine. Today, he has two locations of his original concept, as well as Bok Choy, and Earth Burger, the first vegetarian fast food concept in San Antonio that boasts two locations in the Alamo City, and one in San Marcos, and even one in the Mall of the Americas with plans for additional expansion in the near future.
“Commerce moves the industry, not politics,” Behrend said. “As opposed to protesting in front of a slaughterhouse, we are out here giving people a positive alternative and, San Antonio was ready for it. We have a more sophisticated population than we get credit for food-wise.”
